A.N. Wilson: Gay bishops have changed my mind

In the piece linked below Wilson explains how reading Honor Moore’s memoir The Bishop’s Daughter and Gene Robinson’s In the Eye of the Storm have changed his opinions about gay bishops.

As the question of homosexuality and the Anglican Communion seems to be in the air, I read two books to enlighten me. They have had the disconcerting effect of making me revise my judgment about the whole matter.

I used to think that it was intolerable for anti-gay bigots to use their repellent prejudices to blackmail the harmless Anglican homosexuals, many of whom have enriched the Church with their many gifts. But these two American books have made doubt shimmer through me.

[…]

Then I turned to Bishop Gene Robinson’s In the Eye of the Storm (Canterbury Press). This is the famous Bishop of New Hampshire, who is not being asked to the Lambeth Conference for fear of upsetting the bigots. Whereas I felt that the tormented Bishop Moore’s life was marked with the sign of the cross, Bishop Gene’s ministry appeared to come marked with one of those smiley faces with which some soppy girls dot their i’s.

Like Bishop Moore, Bishop Robinson was married with children. Like Bishop Moore, he is alcoholic. But instead of thinking that torment and concealment and self-criticism are part of life, he seems to believe that the Christian gospel means God accepting everyone as they are – with no suggestion of denying the self, and taking up the cross.